Commissioners Vote to Keep Senior, Mental Health Levies Flat

Faced with the choice of raising property taxes or funding
senior and mental health services at their current levels, the
Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners voted on Wednesday to
approve a ballot measure that would effectively cut tens of millions of
dollars from those services if passed by voters.

“It seems wrongheaded for us to ask citizens to pay more
in taxes when their homes are worth less, when costs have gone up in
their households and when in many cases their paychecks are down,” said
Board President Greg Hartmann. “So we need to hold the line on those
property taxes.”

The tax rate would be held at the levels passed by voters
in 2008, which would be an effective reduction due to declining property
values. If Hamilton County voters approve the levies in November,
senior services would see a $7 million reduction in funding over the
next five years — down to $97 million from $104 million — while funding
for mental health services would fall $17 million from $187 million to
$170 million, Hartmann said.

The money funds services such as meals on wheels, in-home care for seniors, counseling and drug and alcohol addiction and treatment services.

The board’s sole Democrat — Commissioner Todd Portune —
made the symbolic gesture of submitting an alternate proposal which
would have funded services at the levels providers had requested, but it
failed without support from either of the board’s two Republican
members.

Portune’s resolution would have increased property taxes
by $5 for every $100,000 the property was worth. He said voters should
be given the option to shoulder the additional tax burden. He later
voted in favor of Hartmann’s resolution, saying the worst thing that
could happen would be for voters to approve no levy.

Commissioners also approved a resolution to formally
review all healthcare services provided by the county in hopes of saving
money by eliminating any that were duplicated at the federal level
under the healthcare overhaul.

Hartmann said he didn’t come to the decision to keep the
levies at the current rate lightly and pledged to work with the
recipients to manage the reduction.

Many of those providers appeared at three public hearings
held in the last month and with near unanimity asked commissioners to
approve the increased rates — which would have kept funding even by
countering the money lost from decreased property values.

Patrick Tribbe, president and CEO of the Hamilton County
Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, didn’t outline specific cuts
the agency would undertake, but told reporters after the commissioners’
vote that he would spend the next six months planning for the start of
the next fiscal year, when the cuts would take effect.

The Tax Levy Review Committee had recommended that the
property tax rate remain flat instead of increasing. It suggested that
service providers reduce their administrative costs and find areas to
increase efficiency.

Many of the providers who spoke at the public hearings
said they had already cut administrative costs about as deeply as they
could and had very little room for to cut further.